Chinese school after Li Gonglin - Buddhist scroll: The eight - Lot 24

Chinese school after Li Gonglin - Buddhist scroll: The eighteen luohan Ink and color on silk China Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), 19th century Apocryphal signature of Li Gonlin with two stamps on the lower left of the scroll Dimensions: 304 x 40 cm (as seen) The eighteen arhats or eighteen luohan are characters from Buddhist mythology who have reached the stage of arhats in Chinese Buddhist culture. Originally made up of ten disciples of Gautama, the group grew to eighteen between the end of the Tang Dynasty and the beginning of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Li Gonlin was a painter during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1279). He became famous for his paintings of horses, then turned to Buddhist and Taoist religious painting, as well as portraits and landscapes. A scroll in the style of Li Gonglin, dating from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644,) or the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inventory number 47.136.2).